Chapter 41
41
The next morning, Charlotte woke with a slight hangover and a feeling of momentary disorientation. After their stargazing, they’d come back inside the house and finished the wine. She’d snuggled down beside Tristan and slept soundly, only waking when he left her in bed, muttering, ‘I’ll get some coffee on.’ She’d drifted off again for half an hour, and then reawakened when he’d come back into the room.
‘I so need this!’ she exclaimed, taking a sip from the perfectly brewed flat white he handed her. ‘I, er, don’t usually drink so much. Must have got carried away.’
Tristan looked sheepish. ‘I don’t, either,’ he admitted. ‘Perhaps a slow breakfast is in order; to help us both recover a bit. Unless—’ he trailed off before adding, ‘unless you’d rather I ran you straight home?’
Charlotte shook her head, and then winced as it thudded. ‘Breakfast sounds good.’ She glanced down at Comet, who was waiting patiently for a walk and his own breakfast. She felt guilty that she didn’t have anything for him to eat, but it would have seemed presumptuous to have packed his dog food before she knew she was definitely spending the night with Tristan. ‘Sorry, old chap,’ she said. ‘Perhaps a couple of treats will tide you over until you get home.’
‘We can do better than that,’ Tristan replied. ‘I nipped out to the corner shop while the coffee was brewing and got him a bag of the Royal Canin dry food – I noticed some on Gran’s windowsill the other day and wondered if you’d given it to her to feed Comet when she was looking after him. I didn’t want the little fella to go hungry just because he wasn’t at home.’
Charlotte was touched by the thoughtful gesture. ‘That’s really kind.’
They drank their coffee in bed, and then Tristan gave Charlotte some privacy to have a shower. Later, they tucked into pastries and a pot of Lorelai’s homemade tayberry and blackcurrant jam. ‘She gives me about five pots every year and I don’t have the heart to tell her I only get through one!’ Tristan joked as they spread their croissants with it.
‘So,’ Tristan said tentatively. ‘Do you have any plans for the rest of the weekend?’
Charlotte paused. She really should get back to Nightshade Cottage and do some prep work before heading to the observatory bright and early on Monday morning, but it was so tempting to hang out with Tristan a little longer. Their passion of last night had evolved into something more relaxed, and she found herself wondering what it would be like to spend every morning in his company. But, duty called, and she wanted to get some work done before the end of the weekend.
‘I’ve got some stuff to do today,’ she said, ‘but tomorrow’s good, if you wanted to get together again.’
‘In that case,’ Tristan grinned, standing up from the table and moving so that he was in front of her, ‘why don’t I take you home, and we can meet at the pub tomorrow for some lunch?’
Charlotte put down her coffee cup and slid into Tristan’s arms. ‘That’s a great idea,’ she replied. She reached a hand down to ruffle the top of Comet’s head. ‘It’ll give me time to walk this one before we have lunch, too.’
They finished breakfast and then Tristan drove Charlotte and Comet back to Nightshade Cottage. They shared another kiss before she headed back into the annexe to change.
Chatting nonsense to Comet, who was keen to get out for a walk, she threw on some shorts and a T-shirt. She and Comet headed out into the woods, and by the time they’d taken their usual route to the observatory and back, Comet was ready for a lazy afternoon in his basket, while Charlotte did her prep work. After an early night, and another walk with Comet on Sunday morning, she was looking forward to seeing Tristan again.
‘I won’t be long,’ she said to the spaniel as she left, allowing plenty of time for the walk to the Star and Telescope. She also realised that she hadn’t seen Lorelai. She wondered if she’d gone to see Thea and her grandchildren.
The walk to the pub took less time than she’d expected, and she ambled into the bar before Tristan arrived. Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the gloom inside, but as they did, they alighted on a figure she could definitely have done without seeing.
Todd.
‘Hi,’ he said, as he caught sight of her. ‘Couldn’t keep away, huh?’
‘Don’t flatter yourself,’ Charlotte shot back, unnerved by the soon-to-be-juxtaposition of her past relationship and her present one. ‘I thought you’d headed back to London, and your flight?’
‘I decided to stick around a while,’ Todd said, turning his best chocolate-brown-eyed gaze on her. ‘Thought it would be worth it.’
‘Not on my account, I hope!’ Charlotte tried desperately to make light of this situation. ‘I think I was pretty clear with you when we spoke.’
‘Oh, you were.’ Todd gave a brief, tight smile. ‘But a guy can hope, right?’ He turned away to sip his pint, and before Charlotte could conjure a suitably pithy response, he continued. ‘And anyway, I couldn’t stop thinking about those materials you shared with me. Something doesn’t add up. With your permission, I’d like to be your research partner on this one, if you’ll have me.’
Charlotte’s surprise, and not a small amount of suspicion, must have registered on her face as Todd instantly raised his hands in a placatory gesture. ‘Honestly, Charlotte, I’m on the level here. Ever since you sent me the photos of those documents, I’ve been racking my brain trying to work out why Martin and Laura Ashcombe aren’t mentioned with reference to the Volucris Binary. They were in contact with Professor Jacobson at North West Wessex, for goodness’ sake! Why would it just have ended there? I mean, not even a footnote in some journal somewhere? There’s got to be more to it than that.’
Reluctantly, Charlotte had to concede that Todd had a point: she’d been thinking along similar lines ever since she’d found the papers. Much as she resented Todd muscling in on this, she respected his knowledge and expertise. Perhaps it wouldn’t be unreasonable to make use of both if he was prepared to work with her?
‘All right,’ she said carefully. ‘Let’s research this together for a bit. It’s probably going to be a dead end, and there’s likely to be a rational explanation for why Volucris wasn’t documented back in the mid 1990s. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to keep digging. The observatory’s papers are going to be transferred to the North West Wessex archive at the end of the summer, in fact, some have gone already, so when they’re in situ back at the university, I’ll have more time to spend on this. For now, my job is to ensure the important documents are archived, but later on I’ll have more time to look for any connections.’
‘And I’ll take the Jacobson angle,’ Todd replied. He looked thoughtful. ‘I know he worked in the US for a while before he retired a few years back. Perhaps I can track him down… jog his memory about Volucris and the Ashcombe connection.’
Charlotte raised an eyebrow. ‘Wouldn’t he be in his nineties by now, if he’s still alive? How much is he going to remember from thirty-odd years ago? This was right at the birth of the internet, too. If the Lower Brambleton Astronomical Society hadn’t kept a printout of that early email, we’d have no idea about Martin and Laura’s discovery.’
‘Martin and Laura?’ It was Todd’s turn to look sceptical. ‘You sound like you knew them personally.’ He gave her a faintly patronising smile. ‘You get so involved when you’re on a job, don’t you? Almost as if you’re living the lives of the people you’re putting into storage.’
Charlotte realised then exactly why she and Todd would never have had a romantic future. He might be a skilled astronomer and researcher, but she couldn’t put up with his ‘pat on the head, what a good girl you are’ routine. She knew that whatever contact she had with him now would be purely in the name of research.
‘Well, I really must grab a table,’ she said briskly, biting down the urge to tell Todd to sling his hook. ‘I’ve got a lunch date, and I said I’d get us a seat if I got here first.’
‘Don’t let me keep you,’ Todd replied. ‘Who’s your date? Some local you’ve met while you’ve been down here?’
‘Something like that.’ Charlotte beamed as she saw Tristan ducking under the low doorway of the pub. ‘I’ll let you know what I turn up when I’ve spent some more time with the papers.’
‘You do that,’ Todd replied. He was clearly watching the trajectory of Charlotte’s gaze, and she was sure she saw a rather satisfying look of surprise and discomfort crossing his features as he laid eyes on Tristan. Todd made to move away towards the door that led to the rooms above the pub.
‘See you,’ Charlotte replied. Not wanting to face the awkwardness of her past and present romantic lives colliding, she hurried over to meet Tristan halfway across the bar.
‘Hey,’ she said quickly, raising her face to his for a kiss of welcome. ‘I think I spotted a table out the back by the window if you fancy it.’
‘Great,’ Tristan replied. He appeared not to have clocked the interaction between Charlotte and Todd as he’d arrived. ‘I hope you’re hungry,’ he said as they made a beeline for the table, away from the main bar. ‘The Star and Telescope does a mean Sunday roast.’
‘Sounds perfect,’ Charlotte replied. She was glad when they’d rounded the corner and taken their seats, out of Todd’s line of sight. She’d fill Tristan in this afternoon about everything, she thought. After all, this concerned his family; he had a right to know. All the same, she felt a nagging sense of worry about raising what she thought she’d found before she was truly certain. What if she told him about his parents’ link to Volucris and it turned out to be a trail that led to nothing? As a scientist, she was trained to test hypotheses and create theories based on hard evidence. Was she really at the stage where she actually had anything she could even call evidence yet? And what if Todd was right and there was more to it than they’d hitherto discovered? Resolving to enjoy lunch and then think about how she might raise the subject with Tristan, she settled down to make the far easier choice about which type of roast to go for.